Pigment
January 17th – March 14th, 2020
Louise Blyton is currently in the group show Pigment featuring works by Makoto Fujimura, Raphaëlle Goethals, Judith Kruger and Hiroko Otake. These notable artists delve into the exploration of color not merely as visual sensation, but its physical manifestation as raw pigment and all that it conjures.
The fact that color is not tangible tends to be overlooked. Our eyes detect light with wavelengths that bounces off objects, determining the particular color we see. This selection of artworks engages with the corporeal material that governs what we perceive as color. Whether it’s the application of natural minerals to affirm our relationship with the earth or the vibrancy of pure pigment to accentuate form. Each of these artists utilizes the physical aspect of color to give meaningful insight into our visual faculty and beyond.
Louise Blyton is a reductive artist exploring the romance of raw linen and dry pigment. The artist’s geometrically shaped canvases explore color, light, and form through the visual language of Reductivism, an aesthetic style characterized by streamlined compositions, restricted color, and a reduction of form and means. Identifying with Reductivism’s simplicity, Blyton’s shaped canvases and three-dimensional wall sculptures elevate craftsmanship and process, achieving a compositional clarity that unifies color and form.
To construct her works, Blyton covers custom built balsa wood stretchers with raw linen, adorning them with layers of pure pigment or acrylic paint. Each pigment reacts differently to raw linen and requires a specific number of coats to reach the artist’s desired level of saturation. As the artist explains, “I’m always looking for a kind of quietness and harmony when making my works even if the color being used is loud.”
The artist creates her own spatial dimension by manipulating the shape of the canvas, which escapes from the flat surface of the wall, confusing its role as a painting. “Rather than responding to the architecture they ask particular attributes of the building to act as support,” as some works appear to climb the surface of the walls, while others straddle columns and corners.
Louise Blyton lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in 1988. Her works are held in significant corporate and private collections in Australia, China, France, United Kingdom, Portugal, and the United States. Since 2000, Blyton has run an artist supply store called, St. Luke Artist Colourman, which specializes in professional paint and raw materials, with her husband David Coles.
Expand to view Louise Blyton‘s:
b. Melbourne, Australia
Louise Blyton is a reductive artist exploring the romance of raw linen and dry pigment. The artist’s geometrically shaped canvases explore color, light, and form through the visual language of Reductivism, an aesthetic style characterized by streamlined compositions, restricted color, and a reduction of form and means. Identifying with Reductivism’s simplicity, Blyton’s shaped canvases and three-dimensional wall sculptures elevate craftsmanship and process, achieving a compositional clarity that unifies color and form.
To construct her works, Blyton covers custom built balsa wood stretchers with raw linen, adorning them with layers of pure pigment or acrylic paint. Each pigment reacts differently to raw linen and requires a specific number of coats to reach the artist’s desired level of saturation. As the artist explains, “I’m always looking for a kind of quietness and harmony when making my works even if the color being used is loud.”
The artist creates her own spatial dimension by manipulating the shape of the canvas, which escapes from the flat surface of the wall, confusing its role as a painting. “Rather than responding to the architecture they ask particular attributes of the building to act as support,” as some works appear to climb the surface of the walls, while others straddle columns and corners.
Louise Blyton lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in 1988. Her works are held in significant corporate and private collections in Australia, China, France, United Kingdom, Portugal, and the United States. Since 2000, Blyton has run an artist supply store called, St. Luke Artist Colourman, which specializes in professional paint and raw materials, with her husband David Coles.
EDUCATION
1988 BFA, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
AWARDS, GRANTS, AND HONORS
2013 Dame Joan Sutherland Fund
2010 Blake Prize, Finalist
2005 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. Finalist, Sydney
2004 The ANL Maritime Art Prize, Finalist, Melbourne
1988 Mornington Printmaking Prize, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington
1988 Fremantle Printmaking Prize, Perth
RESIDENCIES
2019 Factory 49 Paris Residency, Paris, France
2014 Factory 49 Paris Residency, Paris, France
2013 Point B Studio Residency, New York, NY
2008 Redgate Studio Residency, Beijing, China
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Little Daydreams (petites reveries). Factory 49 Paris, Paris, France
2019 Swan to Swan, Five Walls Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2019 All the Birds are Singing, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Butterflymilk NY, 57WS7Arts, New York, NY
2018 Red. Black and Blue, Five Walls, Melbourne, Australia
2018 The Alliance, with Cat Poljski, Neospace, Melbourne, Australia
2016 Bonbons & Cameos, Factory 49 Paris Pop Up, Paris, France
2016 Little Perhaps, ARCADE. Melbourne, Australia
2016 The Bride of Quietness, 120 Langford Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2015 Pared, St. Heliers, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Studio Works Point B Residency, New York, NY
2013 To Where When Lingers, Factory 49, Sydney, Australia
2012 Long Loves Days, Factory 49, Sydney, Australia
2011 Sugarland, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010 I Carry Your Heart, Motor Works, Melbourne, Australia
2010 Pollen, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Cloak, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Kobold Cave, Mailbox 141, Melbourne, Australia
2008 Sweet Delirium, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2008 Redgate Open Studio, Beijing, China
2004 Butterflymilk, Dante’s Upstairs Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2002 Recent Works, Ume Nomiya, Melbourne, Australia
2000 Recent Works, Fire Station Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1990 Prints and Paintings, York Street Press Melbourne, Australia
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Pigment, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2020 IMAGE_OBJECT, MOFO, Pomona Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
2019 Drawing Now, Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2019 Shades of Grey, Tacit Galleries, Melboume, Australia
2019 MOFO, Poimena Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia
2018 Of Colour and Light, Westend Art Space, Melbourne. Australia
2018 Infinite Worlds/Infinite Probabilities, University of Southern Queensland Art Gallery, Darling Heights, Australia
2018 Support Structures, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, Australia
2018 MONOCHROME: Empty & Full, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2018 Abstraction Twentyeighteen, 120 Langford, Melbourne, Australia
2018 Colour Run, Braemar Gallery, Springwood, Australia
2018 ICONS W\ 13, KNO (Kyiv Non Objective), Mikhail Bulgakov Museum, Kiev, Ukraine
2018 Structure Games, Galerie Olivier Nouvellet, Paris Franco
2018 Vivid, C&B Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2018 Summer Mixer, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
2018 PULSE Miami, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Superposition, curated by Johnny Abrahams, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Downshifting. Denver. CO
2017 Shades of Grey, Tacit Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
2017 Chromatopia – A History of Colour, Tacit Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
2017 Visions of Utopia, Penrith Regional Art Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, NSW, Australia
2016 Visions of Utopia. Wollongong Art Gallery, NSW, Australia
2016 Shades of Grey, Tacit Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
2016 Of Colour and Light – Abstraction in Victoria, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2015 Magical, curated by Rona Green, Neo Space, Melbourne, Australia
2014 Tangible, curated by lan Wells and Louise Blyton. Trocadero ArtSpace, Melbourne, Australia
2013 Colour In, 120 Langford, Melbourne, Australia
2012 The Subjective Object, Paris CONCRET, Paris, France
2012 Show White, Black Arts Project, Melbourne, Australia
2011 Monochrome, Everything Nothing Projects, Canberra, Australia
2011 Saturation Point… International Survey of Reductive Art, Acquire Gallery, London, England
2010 Network, Ballarat Gallery, Victoria, Australia
2010 52, curated by Rona Green Geelong Gallery, Geelong, Australia
2009 The Shilo Project, curated by Chris Mc Auliffe, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Parkville, Australia
2009 Reductive, curated by David Hagger, ACGA Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Hybrid, Toyota Community Spirit Gallery, Melbourne. Australia
2007 50 Exhibition, curated by Rona Green, Geelong Gallery, Geelong, Australia
2005 Melbourne Abstraction, Red Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2005 All Creatures Great and Small, Motorworks Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2004 Impressions, Australia Print Workshop, Melbourne. Australia
2004 A4 Art, Westspace Inc., Melbourne, Australia
2003 White Cube Project, Dante’s Upstairs Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2003 DeConstruction, Dante’s Upstairs Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2003 Cool, Brett Ballard Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2002 New Works, Cube Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2001 Abstraction: Spirit, Light, Pure Form, curated by Charlie Sheard, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2001 Delicious, Melbourne, Australia
2000 Nesting, Fire Station Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1999 Soft Geometry, Upstairs Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1997 Open Space Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1992 Irish Republic, Irish Embassy, London
1990 11, York Street Press, Melbourne, Australia
1989 Group Show, York Street Press, Melbourne, Australia
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